Aristotle Quotes

With the truth, all given facts harmonize; but with what is false, the truth soon hits a wrong note.

Modesty is hardly to be described as a virtue. It is a feeling rather than a disposition. It is a kind of fear of falling into disrepute.

Cruel is the strife of brothers.

For example, justice is considered to mean equality, It does mean equality- but equality for those who are equal, and not for all.

Happiness does not lie in amusement; it would be strange if one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one's life in order to amuse oneself.

Think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

The beginning, as the proverb says, is half the whole.

Tragedy is an imitation not of men but of a life, an action

Our account does not rob the mathematicians of their science... In point of fact they do not need the infinite and do not use it.

To be always seeking after the useful does not become free and exalted souls.

A line is not made up of points. ... In the same way, time is not made up parts considered as indivisible 'nows.' Part of Aristotle's reply to Zeno's paradox concerning continuity.

I say that habit's but a long practice, friend, and this becomes men's nature in the end.

Thus then a single harmony orders the composition of the whole...by the mingling of the most contrary principles.

For pleasure is a state of soul, and to each man that which he is said to be a lover of is pleasant.

Evidence from torture may be considered completely untrustworthy

Greed has no boundaries

We must as second best, as people say, take the least of the evils.

Melancholy men of all others are most witty, which causeth many times a divine ravishment, and a kinde of Enthusiasmus, which stirreth them up to bee excellent Philosophers, Poets, Prophets, etc.

The two qualities which chiefly inspire regard and affection are that a thing is your own and that it is your only one.

Where perception is, there also are pain and pleasure, and where these are, there, of necessity, is desire.

Earthworms are the intenstines of the soil.

Men in general desire the good and not merely what their fathers had.

For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.

The avarice of mankind is insatiable.

Wit is cultured insolence.

It is easier to get one or a few of good sense, and of ability to legislate and adjudge, than to get many.

It is not easy to determine the nature of music, or why any one should have a knowledge of it.

So we must lay it down that the association which is a state exists not for the purpose of living together but for the sake of noble actions.

When we deliberate it is about means and not ends.

It is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician demonstrative proofs.

The First Splendid Truth: To be happy, I need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.

Those who are not angry at the things they should be angry at are thought to be fools, and so are those who are not angry in the right way, at the right time, or with the right persons.

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.

Friendship is a thing most necessary to life, since without friends no one would choose to live, though possessed of all other advantages.

The character which results from wealth is that of a prosperous fool.

As our acts vary, our habits will follow in their course.

The greater the length, the more beautiful will the piece be by reason of its size, provided that the whole be perspicuous.

Being a father is the most rewarding thing a man whose career has plateaued can do.

When you ask a dumb question, you get a smart answer.

The intention makes the crime.

There is no genius who hasn't a touch of insanity.

The greatest victory is over self.

Civil confusions often spring from trifles but decide great issues.

Education and morals will be found almost the whole that goes to make a good man.

A man becomes a friend whenever being loved he loves in return.

Experience has shown that it is difficult, if not impossible, for a populous state to be run by good laws.